It was growing where it didn’t belong. More accurately, it was growing where it wasn’t wanted and would never thrive in that narrow span of rocks between two driveways.
The ground was soft following the rain, so I pulled it. And was surprised to get the full root system with the casing of the seed still attached. No more than six inches long from the leaf tip to root end, it reminds me of the tenacity of life.
A few more leaf pictures from Thursday’s morning walk.
Photo: TLClark, 5/2/19.
So little!
So colorful!
Photo: TLClark, 5/2/19.
Such strange flowers / seeds hanging below the leaves.
Photo: TLClark, 5/2/19.
Such shapes!
Such texture!
Photo: TLClark, 5/2/19.
Leaves and sky and water.
Leaves over Woodland Reserve Pond, Ankeny, Iowa. Photo: TLClark, 5/2/19.
Have you looked, really looked, at leaves on trees in the springtime?
As in walk over to a tree and examine the little bits of green growing on the branches?
New leaves are AMAZING!
Tiny New Leaves. Photo: TLClark, 5/2/19.
Tiny and perfectly shaped.
Reaching for sunlight.
Connected to branch to trunk to earth.
New Leaves Reaching Upward. Photo: TLClark, 5/2/19.
Growing from branches old and new.
Unfurling as they expand.
Ready to dance in a breeze.
*******
Thank-you, Nancy Merrill, for this week’s photo challenge:
… take three photos of the same subject, but from different angles or distances or whatever. This will give you the chance to look at your subject in a lot of different ways. This is the only rule, so have fun.
The pictures are from yesterday’s morning walk (to see post click here). There are more leaf pictures to come!
My initial intent was simply to go for a walk this morning. But I grabbed our Sony Cyber-shot camera as I headed out the door. Two miles, 45 minutes, and 118 pictures later I made it back home. About half the photos were deleted after being downloaded – a great bonus of digital photography.
More than once I wished I’d had my Canon EOS Rebel XTi. Nevertheless the zoom feature on Sony means I have pictures of geese, ducks and a cardinal!
Watching You Watching Us. Photo: TLCLark, 5/2/19.
The ducklings had been following the adults but decided a swim would be easier than hopping over the rocks. I was surprised to see I’d captured an adult male jumping in.
Not without Me! Photo: TLClark, 5/2/19.
The cardinals are very vocal this time of year so they’re often heard even if not so often seen.
Heard and Seen! Photo: TLClark, 5/2/19.
All three pictures shown above were cropped from the original. The next two pictures are unedited.
Mushrooms. Photo: TLClark, 5/2/19.
Smells like Honeysuckle. Photo: TLClark, 5/2/19.
One last picture, cropped slightly.
Crab Apple Blossoms. Photo: TLClark, 5/2/19.
What have you seen while on a walk lately?
Photo: TLClark, 4/20/19.
Photo: TLClark, 4/20/19.
Photo: TLClark, 4/20/19
Photo: TLClark, 4/20/19.
New leaf. Photo: TlClark, 4/20/19.
Wandering down to get the mail on Saturday I noticed the new leaves on the tree in the front yard. It’s finally been sunny and warm enough here in central Iowa for leaves to burst from buds!
Cape Meares State Park, Oregon Coast. Photo: TLClark, October 2011.
“If I had a ship,” the poem “The Island” by A.A.Milne begins. The first stanzas describe sailing the ship through the seas to a beach and leaving the ship to climb up the steep white sand to the trees. It concludes:
And there would I rest, and lie,
My chin in my hands, and gaze
At the dazzle of sand below,
And the green waves curling slow,
And the grey-blue distant haze
Where the sea goes up to the sky . . . .And I’d say to myself as I looked so lazily down at the sea;
“There’s nobody else in the world, and the world was made for me.”A. A. Milne, “The Island,” in When We Were Very Young, Copyright, 1924, by E. P. Dutton, Copyright Renewal, 1952, by A. A. Milne.
On one hand, the last line seems selfishly self-centered.
On the other hand, it reminds me that we all do well to take time away in nature, to spend time alone, to rest, to gaze about, and to wonder.
Green waves, Pacific Ocean, Oregon Coast. Photo: TLClark, October 2011.
I didn’t (and don’t) have a ship, the pictures are not from or of an island, and the weather was too chilly to stay still long! Nevertheless they are what I remembered when I read A. A. Milne’s poem.
Wherever you are and whatever the weather, may you take time to rest and to wonder!
Blessings,
Teressa
Astoria Bridge over the Columbia River, Astoria, OR. Photo: TLCLark, May 2010.
